Reflections

THE POWER OF ENCOURAGEMENT Twenty-second after Pentecost: Mark 10:46-52 By Hugh Farquhar Did someone at some time encourage you in relation to a dream, an intention, or a plan of action? Did someone discourage you, responding negatively and shaking your confidence?...

A TROUBLING REQUEST Twenty-first after Pentecost: Mark 10:35-45. By Hugh Farquhar  From time immemorial, humans have had difficulty with authority. People who misuse authority are people who have allowed some power they have inherited or achieved to go to their heads....

NOT TO WORRY Thanksgiving Sunday: Matthew 6:25-34 By Hugh Farquhar Many years ago, my family and I moved to Aberdeen, Scotland, where I was a post-graduate student at King’s College. During our time there we became familiar with a phrase people often used: “not to...

THE MINISTRY OF CHILDREN Nineteenth after Pentecost: Mark 10:13-16. By Hugh Farquhar I remember well a day when I went to visit a man whose vibrant spouse had just died after a lengthy illness. I was feeling something of the pain in his life and was looking for the...

DON’T YOU SEE THE PRETTY CLOUDS by Hugh Farquhar Eighteenth after Pentecost: Mark 9:38-50. One day, Jesus’ disciple, John, was in a flap! Bothered and agitated, he came to Jesus to vent his concern. “Teacher,” he said, “we saw someone helping people in your name; but...

WISDOM IS AS WISDOM DOES by Hugh Farquhar Seventeenth after Pentecost: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. In this section of his letter, James distinguishes between two kinds of wisdom: “earthly, phony, wisdom” and “loving, authentic wisdom.” Earthly wisdom, in his thinking, is...

REVEALING OUR INNER LANDSCAPE By Hugh Farquhar Sixteenth after Pentecost: James 3:1-12. The Time with Children can be a time when we ministers really earn our keep. You never know what they’re going to say, and parents hold their breath, praying that some family...

OPEN THE CIRCLE Year B, Fifteenth after Pentecost: James 2:1-10 By Hugh Farquhar When I was responsible for a time with children at Sunday worship, I sometimes taught them a song called “Open the Circle” by Jack Miffleton. (It’s like a no fail fudge recipe; it always...

ABOUT INTERRUPTIONS by Hugh Farquhar The Gospel Reading from the Lectionary next Sunday is Mark 5:21-43. I own a book of cartoons that poke fun at ministers. One of my favourites shows a minister at work in his study at home. His four-year-old son is knocking...

"... God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." - 1 John 4:16 The youngest of church groups, the Messengers, had it for their motto: God is love.  You see it on gifts for babies sometimes, God is love.  And it fits nicely on a...

STORMY WEATHER by Hugh Farquhar The Gospel Reading in the Lectionary for next Sunday is Mark 4:35-41. This Gospel Reading is a storm story. Mark says that it was “a great wind storm.” “The waves beat into the boat so that it was already being swamped.” It pitched and...

Earnestly Desiring the End Janice MacLean,  “Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens...

NOT AS MORTALS SEE By Hugh Farquhar The first Reading from the Lectionary next Sunday is 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13. At this stage in the history of the nation of Israel, the time had come to choose a new king. Samuel, the prophet, was led by God to the house of Jesse and...

"Christ was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison." - 1 Peter 3:19 This intriguing verse may be a reference to the day Jesus “descended into hell” (as in the Apostles...

A BUILDING FROM GOD Hugh Farquhar The Epistle Reading in the Lectionary for next Sunday is 2 Corinthians 4;7-5:1. This verse stands out for me: “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,...